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Steelblood Legion
The Steelblood Legion are a large Traitor Space Marine Warband that fractured from the Iron warriors during the Dispute of Iron. They are led by the Warsmith Gor'Hal and follow Chaos Undivided. They have created a small Empire within the Halo Stars and maintain a very similar martial tradition to that of their gene-fathers the Iron Warriors, being some of the best Astartes at engaging in Urban and Siege Warfare but also making extensive use of human and xeno auxiliaries and lab-created monstrosities. They are also extremely adept Flesh-Smiths and rival the Dark Mechanicus in their creation of siege weaponry and armor. They have made many incursions within the Imperium, attacked other Traitor Warbands and Legions, and have fought against many xenos, creating many enemies throughout the galaxy. History Great Crusade The Steelblood Legion were originally a Grand Battalion of the Iron Warriors Legion during the Great Crusade in the 451st Expeditionary Fleet. They were originally known as the Ironblood Battalion and were one of the larger Grand Battalions of the Iron Warriors Legion. Most of these Astartes were either Terran of origin or came from a planet subjugated by Perturabo known as Mon'Torkal. The Ironblood Battalion was famous for their adept urban combat skills, however they were known for taking grievously high Astartes casualties compared to the other Iron Warriors Battalions. This was, in part, due to the Battalion being well known for not being like their Gene-Father in that they would not waste Imperial Army lives, they would do their best to achieve victory with minimal human casualties and when a plan that required taking heavy casualties was the only efficient way to gain victory, the Astartes would fight and die alongside their human auxiliaries. Gor'Hal, the Warsmith of the Ironblood Battalion who was raised on Mon'Torkal, prided himself and his Battalion as being the guardians of Humanity and believed that Astartes were meant to take on the brutality of warfare. This meant that the Ironblood Battalion was not as quick to bring worlds to compliance as other Iron Warriors Expeditionary Fleets and drew the ire of Perturabo. Hrud Campaign Perturabo had not appointed Gor'Hal to Warsmith but it was Gor'Hal's predicessor, a Terran veteran known as Tytus, who appointed Gor'Hal as his heir, which was the tradition in the Ironblood Battalion. Perturabo believed Gor'Hal to be a fine leader but believed he was too soft and cared too much about human life. This led to Perutrabo recalling the fleet and ordering them to lead the vanguard into Hrud territory, leading the Ironblood Battalion to take extensive casualties. Perturabo used this as a time to harden the Ironblood Battalion but also utilize their adept urban combat skills in taking multiple Hrud cities. They would fight with Perturabo with great courage and determination, not asking for respite even when in the most dire of situations and led many victories against the xenos. By the end of the campaign, they had regained the Primarch's favor and were tasked with rebuilding the Battalion for the next 2 years before being shipped off to fight alongside the Dark Angels in bringing a small human empire into compliance in what is now the Ultima Segmentum. Uamlax Campaign The Uamlax Empire was a technologically advanced conglomeration of human worlds. They had advanced plasma weaponry and made extensive use of Xeno slaves as cannon fodder as well as possessing a powerful navy. They're refusal to peacefully join the Imperium and their usage of Xenos led to the Warmaster to task the 451st and the 397th Iron Warriors and Dark Angels Expeditionary Fleets to bring them to compliance. This campaign, later known as the Uamlax Slaughter, would show a major change in the Ironblood Battalion, the terrible war against the Hrud had changed the Ironblood personality. This campaign would prove to be long and brutal, all the worlds being brought to compliance were nothing more than dead husks, the mere memories of the multi-millennia old civilizations being purged from existence while billions of civilians were enslaved. Millions of humans died on both sides while the Xenos died in tens of millions and the Dark Angels took high casualties whereas the Ironblood warriors sustained minimal casualties. They used artillery and orbital ordinance to bombard enemy positions and in many cases bombard areas filled with allied troops to kill/destroy priority targets. They would first have human auxiliaries advance to draw enemy fire then advance themselves, using the auxiliaries as shields. They did not coordinate with their Dark Angel allies and failed to provide support where they promised they would, they also let many Dark Angel positions be overrun because the cost of Ironblood lives would be too high to save those positions that they deemed unnecessary for certain wargoals. The Ironblood Warriors refused to take the horrendous losses they suffered during the Hrud campaign again and were willing to let millions die to spare the lives of their own when it was unnecessary. Gor'Hal no longer cared for the lives of the humans under his command nor allied Astartes, his loyalty was solely to his Brothers from Mon'Torkal and his Primarch. This angered the Dark Angels greatly and would prove to ensure that they would never again fight alongside the Ironblood Battalion and swear to avenge their losses. Perturabo was not entirely pleased, for he wanted to harden the Ironblood Battalion and make them as efficient as other Iron Warriors Battalions, no matter the cost of human or Astartes lives. Gor'Hal's strategy was making the compliance faster than previous campaigns but it was still not what Perturabo wanted. He cared not for who died, he just wanted quick and efficient victories and the Uamlax slaughter was not nearly as quick or efficient as Perturabo had hoped it would go. Horus Heresy Wrath of Iron By the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Ironblood Battalion numbered around 6,000. Instead of campaigning with their Primarch and joining him at Istvaan and later to venture into the Eye of Terror with the Emperor's Children, they were given special orders to cause havoc in the territory of the Imperial Fists. They were to do this with 451st and 728th Expeditionary Fleets, a company of Tyrant Siege Terminators from Perturabo's own Fleet, and hundreds of thousands of auxiliary humans. This campaign would be known as the Wrath of Iron and the Ironblood were tasked with diverting Imperial Fist Forces from regrouping at Terra and disrupt the flow of their reinforcements. However, their main objective was to bring a Forgeworld in Imperial Fist Space under the Iron Warriors banner so that Perturabo could utilize the vast Forges to build the Warmachines he needed to bring Terra low. Perturabo told the Ironblood Battalion that failure was not an option and that this would be the last time he would allow his sons to prove their worth. In his name, they quickly raised dozens of worlds, destroyed multiple Imperial Fist garrisons, and torched many recruiting worlds while enslaving many of their peoples. Soon they came to the Forge World they where tasked to take and prepared for a swift invasion of the planet. The Ironblood Battalion realized they did not have the strength to take the Forge World nearly as quickly as they had hoped. The siege of Kerthax dragged on much longer than they had wanted until eventually a large Retribution fleet of Imperial Fists entered the system to relieve to Mechanicus forces. The Ironblood expedition was forced to retreat and regroup with Perturabo's fleet after a costly naval engagement. Having failed to defeat the Imperial Fists reactionary force and take the Forge World, Perturabo decimated the Ironblood Battalion. The once 6,000 strong Grand Battalion was now down to less than one-third of their strength, about 1,700 Astartes remained after the combined losses from The Wrath of Iron ''campaign and the decimation. Great Scouring - Defense of Mon'Torkal Seeds of anger towards their gene-father were sown after the decimation, for they believed the campaign was a suicidal plan wherein they felt completely under-manned for the campaign and were now punished for something they could not accomplish. Gor'Hal especially began to hate his gene-father, for he resented the major losses his Battalion took during the Hrud campaign, the Wrath of Iron, and now at the hands of Perturabo. He did not understand why his gene-father did not care about the lives of his sons, especially ones that worked so hard for his approval. The Ironblood Battalion was not given the honor to join the Legion during the siege of Terra but were forced to return to their home at Mon'Torkal. They started to build up their numbers again but once Horus fell, the Loyalists came for vengeance, especially the Imperial Fists and Dark Angels. The fight for Mon'Torkal was brutal, thousands of Astartes dying on both sides and millions of human soldiers dying beside them. Eventually the Ironblood Battalion was forced to flee their home, watching as the Loyalists raised their homes and destroyed their home planet. By the end of the Great Scouring and the Battalion reached the safety of the Eye of Terror, the Ironblood Battalion were now less than 400 Astartes strong. Legion Wars In the Eye of Terror, Perturabo did not grant the Ironblood Battalion the right to settle on Medrengard with the rest of the Legion due to his displeasure with their recent failures. The Ironblood Battalion was forced to survive as a Fleet Based Splinter of the Legion, their only refuge being in orbit around the planet. They did their best to recoup their losses during the Legion Wars, Warsmith Gor'Hal leading raids on the other Legions and overseeing the recruitment of new Astartes into their ranks. Gor'Hal hated Chaos and commanded that all members of the Ironblood avoid any dealings with warp entities and only "devote" themselves to Chaos undivided, refusal to obey would result in summary execution. He also maintained strict discipline and organization within the Ironblood ranks, maintaining normal battle companies, siege companies, and assault companies all being led by Captains who rose from the ranks through merit and loyalty, unlike the Aspiring Champions of other Legions and Warbands who rose through pleasing the Chaos Gods. There is also a vast armory of vehicles and artillery at the Ironblood's disposal after raiding many of their cousins armories and creating their own new machines of war. He also ensured that there were a high number of specialist Astartes within the Ironblood ranks, high numbers of Apocetharies, Iron Priests (Chaplains), and Hellsmiths. By the time of the Dispute of Iron broke out on Medrengard, Warsmith Gor'Hal had brought his Warband from a mere 400 Astartes to 5,000 strong with tens of thousands of human auxiliaries and a relatively strong fleet of 17 vessels. Dispute of Iron Warsmith Gor'Hal, along with the rest of the leaders of the Ironblood Battatlion decided to break from their Legion during this period because they believed that their brothers and gene-father had grown soft while they were forced to fight for their survival. They hated the fact that their brothers were content with hiding on Medrengard as they were forced to raid and fight the other legions for resources and slaves. The Ironblood dropped down onto isolated outposts killing their brothers, stealing weapons, armor, slaves, vehicles, and commandeered extra vessels and fled the planet while the Legion was tearing itself apart. They decided to venture into unknown space, into the Halo Stars, knowing that they would have no friends in the Traitor Legions or in the Imperium. They set out to create their own Empire and subdue whatever xenos or "free" human civilizations existed in the that region of Space. The Union of Steel and Faith After departing from the Eye of Terror, Gor'Hal knew that his Warband would need a base of operations so set out to conquer a planet with a human population to provide manpower, resources, and labor. He had millions of slaves so an uninhabited planet could make due but he preferred to settle on a planet that already had a strong infrastructure and fortifiable cities and fortresses. His forces numbered around 5,000 Astartes, around 40,000 human troops, a small titan legion, and 23 vessels. After a few months of searching, the Steelblood Legion would enter a system with 8 planets; 1 dead world, 1 molten world, 3 temperate worlds, 1, desert planet, 1 gas giant, and 1 frozen world. Every planet except for the dead world contained human life and the Legion took a cautious approach to this discovery. Gor'Hal, his highest ranking officer, and the "Roj'Kah" ''or Crimson Guard, (the Elite Terminator Companies of the Legion) took their Flagship, Pride of Mon'Torkal, and went ahead of the rest of the fleet and hailed the single fleet in the system which numbered 19. Gor'Hal and the Roj'Kah boarded the flagship of the unknown civilization in full war-gear, to both intimidate and impress but also to be prepared for treachery. They were met by an assembly of humans, appearing to be a mix of politicians and their honor guard. The Legion learned that these humans used a language similar to that of low Gothic and that this system was united under a form of Aristocracy wherein each planet was ruled by a noble house and the leader of each noble house had a seat on the Council of 11. 3 more seats would be granted to the banking clan, the clergy, and the forge masters. The final seat was reserved for the Grand Prince, a dynastic position for the leader of the system's armed forces and government. The guards appeared to wear a type of armor similar to that of Thunder Armor and their weapons were heavy sluggers. However, it appeared that many of the warriors' armor was heavily damaged and so too were the ships of their fleet. The Council explained that they, the Truir Confederacy, were at war with multiple factions in the area; xenos known as the Tiljati that have allied with other humans called the Diphlaxus Commonwealth, a Necron Tombworld ruled by the Klaiphen Dynasty, and Greenskins. Gor'Hal and his officers entered into discussion with the Council, providing them with an offer. He asked for them to pledge their allegiance to him and his Legion and in turn his Legion would subjugate or destroy every enemy the Truir Confederacy were up against. It did not take long for the Truir council to decide, for they were losing the war on all fronts and there was no way they could fight against foreigners. They were also a deeply religious people and the Clergy preached that eventually the Truir peoples would be granted saviors in their darkest hour by their gods, and these men in their mighty panoply of war appeared to be that salvation. The Truir Council pledged their loyalty to the Steelblood Legion, granting Warsmith Gor'Hal the title of Arch Angelus and his the Legion were his Angels. Gor'Hal considered this to be a great irony, for they used to be known as the Angels of Death of the Emperor, then they turned to the worship of demons, now they are back to Angels but masters of a new Empire. Within the Legion, Gor'Hal still maintained his title Warsmith and his lieutenants took up the titles of Forge Lord. The Legion quickly erected a massive fortress which they called the Mon'Torkalus on the largest planet called Telingard, making the planet their Headquarters and the new planetary Capitol of their new Empire. The Truir people were strong, having lived their lives in constant warfare against xenos and other human civilizations. The Truir were deeply religious and most of the population were fairly uneducated, so the Legion was swift in taking complete control of the system by using their position as Angelic beings to cow the people into submission. Mass recruitment into both the Legion and Auxiliary forces took place along with the creation of giant forges on the Molten planet of Kardulk and the Desert planet of Uthel. Ports would either be improved or built around each planet to act as a planetary defense system as well as a place to dock the fleets, but the largest port would be build above Telingard, matching the scale of Port Maw in the Gothic Sector. After a few decades of building and recruiting within the System and fighting off enemy incursion by M35, the Steelblood Legion numbered some tens of thousands of Astartes and had around innumerable millions of Auxiliary Troops, which they now called the Torkan Cohorts, which was structured very similarly to the Imperial Army. Present Day For the last 5 millennia, the Steelblood Legion devoted most of their efforts to consolidating their holds in the Halo Stars. They campaigned continuously against xenos and humans alike, taking grievous losses against the new enemies. Initially, the Steelblood attempted to recreate the Great Crusade and have Legions of their own Astartes but it soon became clear that their Gene-Seed was not stable enough nor was their recruitment process fast enough to replenish the heavy losses they undertook during their near ceaseless campaigns. This resulted in the Warband shrinking down to its original strength of around 5,000 Astartes by the 41st Millennium. To compensate, the Steelblood have diverted many resources to building up their Auxiliary Forces and their engines of war along with becoming more accepting of the usage of the Warp. They have also delved into the research that of Fabius Bile after a successful raid on some of his labs and have become heavily invested in the creation of lab-born beasts and enhancing xenos, humans, and Astartes alike. Warsmith Gor'Hal still leads the Steelblood Legion, for he finally accepted the gifts of the Chaos gods and has been granted many boons, one of which is eternal life. In more recent history, the Steelblood Legion have raided into the Imperium to acquire slaves and gain the favor of the Chaos gods. They have also ventured back into the Eye of Terror to acquire their Gene-Father's Geneseed as well as to lay rival warbands low. Notable Battles and Campaigns Warband Leaders Warsmith Gor'Hal Not much is known of Gor'Hal's early years other than he was born on the planet of Mon'Torkal and he has a twin brother called Fel'Hal. Both would be inducted into the Iron Warriors Legion soon after the compliance of Mon'Torkal and they would each pursue different paths within the Legion. Gor'Hal possessed an extremely high intellect, learning and mastering the arts of Techpriests and thrived in close combat using combat mauls and warhammers. He would also be one of the best students of grand strategy during his training. The Warsmith Tytos took a great interest in Gor'Hal and would take him under his wing once Gor'Hal's training and induction into the Legion was complete. Tytos would have Gor'Hal take part in ever different position within the Battalion possible. He was taught how to effectively man and coordinate the artillery, he would be part of Siege, Mechanized, and Infantry Companies, later he would be part of the armored spearheads of the Battalion's tanks, and finally he would be trained as a pilot of a thunderhawk. Gor'Hal had become a "jack of all trades", effectively able to take on any role within the Legion but was one of the best when it came to strategy and Tytos took this into consideration. Tytos would have Gor'Hal almost immediately take the role of Sergeant after he had completed his "training" in the various roles of the Legion. Many saw this as Tytos "grooming his heir" which was customary for the battalion, so much was expected from Gor'Hal. Gor'Hal would become 9th Siege Company Captain after a few decades on the Crusade as a sergeant. The heavy casualties the Ironblood Battalion would incur on their grueling siege campaigns would result in many officers dying and new Astartes being promoted quickly, and after a campaign against the Orks where his Captain was killed, Gor'Hal was promoted by Tytos to his new position. Gor'Hal cared for the Astartes under his charge, never asking anything of them that he would not do. He would lead his Siege Company directly, leading assaults in enemy fortifications and expertly utilizing the heavy weapons teams and artillery at his disposal. Gor'Hal and the 9th would always be where the fighting was hardest and taking on the most difficult tasks along with dealing with the toughest enemy fortifications. When the Tytos was not busy coordinating and dealing with the overall command, he would be found with the 1st company fighting alongside Gor'Hal and the 9th. Gor'Hal earned the complete and utter loyalty of the Astartes under his command. He never wasted their lives and whenever squads were cut off or isolated, Gor'Hal would personally lead the relief force, seeing any faults in his overall strategy as a dishonor and would not let his failings lead to unnecessary death of his men. Even the human auxiliaries under his command would always request to continue fighting alongside the 9th for they were not used as meat shields or just "chaff" as other Iron Warriors battalions would. It wasn't long until Gor'Hal was viewed as the "rightful" heir to Tytos and this would bring great pride to the Warsmith, seeing he had groomed the perfect replacement. He also viewed Gor'Hal as an adopted son and protege, while Gor'Hal viewed him as his adopted father.Category:Iron Warriors